Summary: For CCTV Social, artist Shaina Anand collaborated with Manchester Metropolitan University and Arndale Shopping Centre to open working CCTV environments to a general audience. People normally 'enclosed' by these networks came into the control rooms to view, observe and monitor this condition, so endemic in the UK. About thirty people signed up for one-hour sessions in the MMU security center to engage with the CCTV operators and monitor surveillance procedures. These sessions became somewhat like a diagnostic clinic, where they discussed symptoms, anxieties and inoculations about their 'public health,' under surveillance. These therapy sessions seemed to work both ways, for the participants as well as the security officers.

This is footage of Kate's conversation with Steve, the surveillance officer at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Kate is a film curator working at FACT, Liverpool and is interested in looking at how artists and operators look at CCTV. The interaction was interesting in that it reveals Steve's perspective on being stereotyped as "the security guard on a power trip." He also talks about how his job has altered his way of "seeing" reality. He now perceives the world around him through the detached "eye" of the camera. They talk about how and when, in the process of "watching," does one realise that someone's privacy is being invaded.

Kate in conversation with Steve, a surveillance control officer at the Manchester Metropolitan University. Rows of numbered screens, displaying live feed from CCTV cameras, line the walls of the surveillance control room.

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Kate: The crime that you are kind of seeing, is it mainly directed at the students?
Steve: Not just the students, any 'Joe' members of the public.
Kate: Okay.
Steve: Obviously, because of the nature of the area there is a large student population in the Oxford Road Corridor going up, and a lot of students come and live in the area. And so a lot of victims tend to be students. That's why you have to allow the police a lot of operations that they have, to reduce the crime that is inflicted on the students. Because at the end of the day, that's our economy as well, cause students bring a lot of money into Manchester. That's a massive economy; students. And we have thirty odd thousand students, Manchester University has got thirty odd... It's a massive population of students and they are all concentrated in a small... It's like a small... Well, quite a nice town to be honest with you, ain't it?
Kate: Yeah.
Steve: So yeah, they will police it as best as they can.
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Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester

Kate: So do you... If the police were to say, "there is something that has happened and we think you might have caught/ captured it," Would it be you handing up the tapes? Or do you spend lots of time reviewing it?
Steve: We'll review it.
Kate: You'll review it.
Steve: Cause obviously this is a spot monitor where 'what you see is what you get.' And if we see an offence and zoom in on it, and get perfect clarity and good ID... Then again, I could be looking at something else and an incident is taking place there, (points to another screen) at Stratford Road. Now that's still being recorded in the multiplexer which is the tape that records up to eight cameras, so you have to have the multiplexer unit to split and then you play it back. Obviously that's time-lapsed, it's only 8 frames a second, which is slightly staggered. But it still could be enough for ID purposes.
Kate: Yeah.
Steve: But obviously, like I said, I haven't got 36 pairs of eyes. You can't watch every camera, every minute of the day, myself, personally. Like I said, ninety-five percent of the time you could be looking at nothing. Nothing happens. But sometimes it does.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
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Kate: And does that kind of get adrenaline...?
Steve: Yeah, because we deal with some really nasty stuff sometimes. Like we are watching someone here (zooms in) knowing full well that they are running up there (pans left) and then all off. If they got their back to me, then I'll swing this one around and I'll be ready. And then I could turn that way (pans right) and I'll have that one swinging round, ready! Just to keep the continuity of it. (zooms in on two people walking on the sidewalk)
Kate: And do you film stuff yourself? Like, I dunno, holiday videos or anything like that? You would...
Steve: No.
Kate: No?
Steve: I spend too much time in front of the cameras.
Kate: So you are not interested in any kind of film making or...?
Steve: Not to that extent.
Kate: No. If you and the rest of your team - you know that you are watching each other - do you ever kind of send messages to each other? Perform in front of the camera for someone else who sat in here? No?
Steve: No, We're too busy seeing other people making prats of themselves.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
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Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
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SA: So when you are not on duty and you are under these cameras, and... What would you feel?
Steve: I just go home.
SA: Yeah.
Steve: I just go home.
SA: There is sort of an occupational hazard that happens with news reporters, news cameraman, or even documentary film-makers, they sort of... The video camera becomes this buffer. So even though things are seemingly real...
Steve: Oh yeah, I mean...
SA: Without the gore, the violence, it just seems that there is this filter...
Steve: I've seen some stuff in here that if you're there and you actually see it, see happen next to you... But it's totally different. It does put... I mean, it's not distance. It's down the other way, but like, for instance if I ever see somebody get knocked down, now if I would have been standing there seeing them get knocked down, it's a different thing because you are seeing it personally with your own eyes. The scene is still there, but I'm not seeing it, the camera is seeing it.
Kate: Okay?
Steve: Are you with me?
Kate: Yeah.
Steve: It's not me with me when I'm seeing it. I'm only seeing what the camera is going to, I'm not there personally close up.
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Kate: And do you find, generally when you are watching stuff that you... Because you've got this distancing of the camera in your head, that you can't... eh... Do you feel that distance then, or does that completely break down when you see something fictional? I mean can you get completely emotionally involved?
Steve: Yes, you can do. That's why you go in there, you go there for the experience; that's the whole part of going to the pictures, you get emotionally involved in the film. This is different. It's real life.
Kate: Yeah. With documentary, do you find that you are more kind of critical of stuff because you see how things get put together?
Steve: You can get involved, I think you still get emotionally involved. Because you are not making this stuff personally, I mean if you wanna watch a documentary and you know what it's about, and if you know it's something that you're going to get emotionally involved about, that's why you're watching it.
Kate: Yeah.
Steve: Its not like this when you're working live - you've gotta distance yourself. I'm not saying it doesn't effect, you might think about it later, you will be... But at the time that's part of your job. You've got to remain calm because you'll put all the people at risk if you don't.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
CCTV
Related Links:
[www.popcenter.org/library/CrimePrevention/Volume_10/06-NorrisArmstrong.pdf - Who is being watched and why?]
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BJ: Depends how the adrenaline gets you. Each one takes it different...
Steve: I was saying, you've got to remain calm.
BJ: Oh yeah, yeah. No good if you flap out there. Same in here, you've got to have your eye in the back of your head in here. Its interesting, quite interesting. You'd be surprised at what you see out there.
Kate: With that kind of public perception that you were saying - the misconception - do you think that what you do is misrepresented on telly? Or...?
Steve: Well, you give me the stereotypical view of the security guard.
Kate: Oh I dunno. I guess with this surveillance stuff the things that, I'll be thinking of, like channel 5, you know. There are these kind of cop shows where you are using all of that kind of footage...
Steve: Ah well, that's what the number of times - I and my colleagues will confirm here - the number of times we've had that comment thrown at us, "a four pound an hour," this that and the other, nothing better to do and they think you'll have that little power trip. At the end we don't. Really, it's to protect people, help them in any way we can. We're not here to give people a hard time, students, be it whoever. We're here to help the best we can.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
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Kate: And what got you here? Why did you decide to do this?
Steve: I worked in security before I joined the university. And then I joined the university services. Not long since then they built this control room, and I put in for it and was fortunate to get it.
Kate: And why security?
Steve: That's because I've done security before and its quite hands on. I mean, to be honest with you, it's because no two days can be the same here. Whichever shift you do, you have no idea every time you go on shift what can happen. Yeah, if you go off to a security job in a factory where you are booking people in, it's mind-numbing. I've been there and done that and I wouldn't want to do it again. With this, I have no idea what could come through. I have no idea what could happen and that's the buzz of it sometimes. Like you say, ninety-five percent of the time you can be... And like five percent of the time something really exciting can happen, and you're part of it.
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
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Kate: (Apart from) Violence and that kind of criminal activity, how much are people kind of getting amorous, late at night?
Steve: You do get it.
Kate: Yeah.
Steve: They do that in public areas, they are nuts there. Silly!
Kate: That's silly? (laughs)
Steve: They are all silly. You can't help but notice it. Not notice it. "Reclaim the streets," when they rode through Manchester naked on bicycles, we were asked to film that. So that's quite a comical. We were asked by the police to follow them down Oxford Road. You can be asked to film anything. But not a lot of people realise that if there is an issue taking place, not the whole of the MMU gets prosecuted, we do.
Kate: Right.
Steve: You (We) get done more than actual MMU and certain officers; not here, but in general, have been (prosecuted) for misuse of CCTV.
Kate: How do you know? What's the point where you're looking at something and you think, "maybe this is too much"? How does that happen or work?
Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
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Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Steve: That's just the experience of using the system. You just know when it's an invasion of privacy.
Kate: Okay.
Steve: The general rule is just scan in the area; if you see something you zoom in and you ID, you come out.
Kate: Okay.
Steve: And obviously, if nothing takes place you can just scan on and move to another. If an incident does take place and it involves a number of people, you're zooming in, you're "ID-ing" everyone there and then you pan back out and get a general overview of the incident as it is happening. Say you see someone, part of the group or whatever, you know doing something that they shouldn't be doing, you can zoom back and concentrate on what they've done, pan back over again cause you don't want that group... You don't want to zoom in too long because you might be missing what the other couple of them might be doing. So you... There are certain reasons. But if they are not doing anything then you don't stay zoomed in.
CCTV
Related Links: Civil Liberties: surveillance and privacyArguments against Surveillance
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Steve: Yeah, you can go to some extent in certain areas where it does become an invasion of privacy.
Kate: What areas would that be?
Steve: As I was saying before, you cover an entrance to a pub and one of the other fire exits with CCTV. That's for emergency purposes, it stops big crime or whatever. But when you are in a pub or a restaurant, you're actually inside there, you just want to socialise, don't you? You don't want to wonder, "why am I being watched?"
Kate: What's the question that you haven't been asked that you'd like to be asked?
Steve: What's me phone number! (laughs)
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